


Hide and Seek

by dorwinionwhining



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Family, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 05:14:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17801693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dorwinionwhining/pseuds/dorwinionwhining
Summary: Maglor interrupts a game between the twins.





	Hide and Seek

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to everyone who clicked on this, I hope you enjoy it. I wrote this because I needed a pick-me-up, and so it is very soft and sweet and doesn't go anywhere in particular. But it made me smile and perhaps it will do the same for you. Kudos and comments are much appreciated.

Maglor paused in the act of unwinding the end of his braid. “I can see you there, Elros,” he said, looking past his reflection in the mirror to the bed behind him.

“No, you can’t,” an awkward lump in the blankets declared in a small child’s approximation of a whisper.

Maglor smiled.

The lump wiggled and for a brief moment a button nose and one gray eye was visible. “I’m hiding.”

“You might have better luck lying flat.” Maglor yanked out the last few strands of his braid and began to finger comb the resulting mess of waves.

The lump wiggled again and then smoothed out.

The gray eye reappeared. “You should leave your hair down. It’s pretty.”

Maglor laughed. “Thank you, Elros.”

Elros shushed him. “I told you, I’m hiding,” he said. “You can’t use my name or Elrond will find me.”

Maglor bit down on the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing again. “Very well,” he said gravely. “I shall not.”

He began to separate his hair out into new sections, and Elros’s eye vanished back beneath the blankets. Several minutes and quite a few twitches and shuffles later, Maglor heard small, tentative footsteps making their way down the hall outside.

Elros must have heard them as well, because he hissed, “Go away!” and flattened himself out even further.

Maglor grinned.

Elrond peeked into the room, his hands curled around the doorframe. He caught sight of Maglor first and a scowl appeared on his face, dark eyebrows drawing down and together and tiny lips pushed out in a pout. Maglor waved at him and went back to finishing up the much looser and more comfortable braid he was weaving his hair into.

Elrond watched him carefully before casting around the rest of the room. His eyes narrowed when he spotted the lump that was his twin.

Maglor chewed on the inside of his cheek, keeping his voice level as he asked, “Was there something you needed, Elrond?”

The lump twitched.

Elrond’s scowl deepened. “Elros is cheating,” he told Maglor.

The lump squawked indignantly.

Maglor raised his eyebrows and asked, “Is he?”

“He’s only supposed to hide in empty rooms,” Elrond said.

“It was empty!” Elros shrieked, exploding out of the blankets in a flurry of movement. “And I told him to go away!”

“So? He didn’t go away,” Elrond said, a triumphant smirk replacing his frown. “You’re still cheating! You broke the rules!”

Elros shrieked again, and then after a moment he flopped down onto his stomach with a dramatic, defeated sigh.

Maglor bit the inside of his lip in order to keep his face straight and turned gravely to Elros. “I apologize. I hadn’t realized you were addressing me when you said that.” To Elrond he added, “He did tell me to go away.”

Elrond’s smile faded as he looked up at Maglor, but the triumph lingered as a bright light in his pale eyes. “You’re a grown up,” he said. “He’s supposed to find a new place to hide if you won’t leave.”

“You were already in the hallway!” Elros protested.

Maglor resisted the urge to inflame the budding argument by pointing out the conversation he and Elros had engaged in before Elrond arrived. Elros had certainly had enough time to find a different hiding place if he’d chosen to leave right away instead of talking.

But Maglor was not their brother, and if this devolved into a fight he’d be expected to deal with it rather than laugh at it, and so instead he asked Elrond, “Is it your turn to hide now? Or is there a special punishment for cheaters.”

Elrond’s lips pursed together for a brief moment, and he glanced first at Elros and then back to Maglor, hovering on the edge of a decision before his expression cleared and some of the tension drained from his shoulders. “I get to hide,” he said. “And Elros has to count for twice as long.”

Elros gave another dramatic sigh.

Maglor smiled at Elrond. “I’ll make sure he sticks to that.”

“But it was your fault,” Elros muttered dejectedly.

Maglor’s smile widened into a grin, and, astonishingly, Elrond smiled back at him. “Start counting!” he yelled at his brother. Then he spun on his heel and fled from Maglor’s room.

Maglor listened to his fading footsteps and Elros’s hurried counting, his heart warm and aching in his chest.


End file.
